Back to practice, a decade of research in E-government

E-government is a multidisciplinary field of research based initially on empirical insights from practice. Efforts to theoretically found the field have opened perspectives from multiple research domains. The goal of this chapter is to review evolution of the e-government field from an institutional and an academic point of view. Our position is that e-government is an emergent multidisciplinary field of research in which focus on practice is a prominent characteristic. Each chapter of the book is then briefly presented and is positioned according to a vision of the e-government domain of research.E-government, Case study, E-administration, Public domain

Where to go in the near future: diverging perspectives on online public service delivery

Although the electronic government is under heavy development, a clear vision doesn’t seem to exist. In this study 20 interviews among leaders in the field of e-government in the Netherlands resulted in different perspectives on the future of electronic public service delivery. The interviews revealed different objectives and interpretations of the presuppositions regarding citizens’ desires. Opinions about channel approaches and ‘trigger services’ appeared to vary. Furthermore, the respondents didn’t agree on the number of contact moments between citizen and government, had different opinions about digital skills, pled for various designs of the electronic government and placed the responsibility for electronic service delivery in different hands. Conclusion is that there is a lack of concepts on how to do things. Everybody talks about eGovernment, but all have different interpretations. \u

A Review Of Interoperability Standards And Initiatives In Electronic Government

Being important at organizational, process and semantic levels, interoperability became a key characteristic of the new electronic government systems and services, over the last decade. As a crucial prerequisite for automated process execution leading to “one-stop” e-Government services, interoperability has been systematically prescribed, since the dawn of the 21st century: Standardization frameworks, that included guidelines ranging from simple statements to well defined international Web-Service standards started to appear at National and Cross-Country levels, powered by governments, the European Union or the United Nations. In parallel, most international software, hardware and service vendors created their own strategies for achieving the goal of open, collaborative, loosely coupled systems and components. The paper presents the main milestones in this fascinating quest that shaped electronic government during the last 10 years, describing National Frameworks, key Pan-European projects, international standardization and main industrial and research achievements. Moreover, the paper describes the next steps needed to achieve interoperability at technical, semantic, organizational, legal or policy level – leading to the transformation of administrative processes and the provision of low-cost, high-quality services to citizens and businesses

Citizen Diversity in e-Government Research: Moving the Field Forward

Whereas broad launch of public e-services ensures equal and homogenous treatment of citizens, citizen diversity is often set aside. By means of a literature study we describe how research has addressed diversity in the field of eGovernment. we analyzed the papers according to the following codes: group; application domain; unit of analysis; and technology in use or design. Results showed that the most common application domain was e-services with access and use as the most common units of analysis. The most frequently researched groups are based on classical socio-demographic variables such as economy, education and age. Also, the majority of papers discussed services in use. We conclude by suggesting that future research focuses underrepresented user groups; adds further granularity to the classical sociodemographic variables; identifies groups within groups; targets policies and policy implementation; and changes focus from use to development. We also call for conceptual clarity of the concept ‘diversity’

What do we know from the literature on public e-services?.

Public e-services are a broad and growing research field in which scholars and practitioners from different domains are involved. However, the increasing attention devoted to public e-services only partially captures the extreme variety of aspects and implications of the diffusion of information and communication technologies at all levels of public administrations. The paper aims to develop a meta-analysis of the literature on the delivery, diffusion, adoption and impact of public e-services and examines current research trends in terms of differences in methodologies, approaches and key indicators across five service platforms: eGovernment, eEducation, eHealth, Infomobility and eProcurement. We examined 751 articles appeared in 2000-2010 in the top international academic journals listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), as classified in the following fields: Communication, Economics, Education, Environmental Studies, Geography, Health Policy & Services, Information Science & Library Science, Law, Management, Planning & Development, Public Administration, Transportation and Urban Studies. We highlight a significant heterogeneity in scientific production across service domains, countries covered by empirical analyses, indicators used, and affiliation of authors. We also show an increasing diffusion of quantitative methods applied to different research fields which still appears to be constrained by data limitations. The overall picture emerging from the analysis is one characterized by largely unexplored service domains as well as scarcely analyzed issues both across and within individual service platforms (e.g. front vs. back office issues). Thus many research opportunities seem to emerge and need to be exploited from different disciplinary perspectives in this field of analysis.eGovernment, eEducation, eHealth, Infomobility, eProcurement, Bibliometrics, Metaanalysis, Innovation in services, Public e-services

UTILIZAÇÃO DE TEORIAS NAS PESQUISAS EM GOVERNO ELETRÔNICO: REFLEXÕES INICIAIS SOBRE PESQUISAS BRASILEIRAS

This article discusses the use of theory in Brazilian research on electronic government (eGov). International academic literature has promoted reflections and criticisms about the degree of theorization in the eGov research field and its implications to research. This article aims to understand the use of theories in the Brazilian context. Through a systematic literature review, 96 articles published between 2003 and 2014 were selected. The five types of theory typology proposed by Gregor (2006) in her article ‘The Nature of Theory in Information System’ was used as the framework to analyze the papers. A detailed paper analysis shows that most of them (62%) fit to the ‘Theory to Analysis’, the most basic type. The main interest of Brazilian researches is the description of the phenomenon ("what"), rather than to understand "why", "what will be" or "how to do something," representing necessary stages for the growth and qualification of a research field. The study indicates the need to use other stages of theories in Brazilian studies on eGov.Este artigo trata do uso de teoria nas pesquisas brasileiras sobre governo eletrônico (eGov). A literatura acadêmica internacional tem promovido reflexões e críticas acerca do grau de teorização da área de eGov e suas implicações na pesquisa. Nesse contexto, este artigo tem por objetivo discutir a utilização de teorias no campo de pesquisa de eGov tendo como base para esta reflexão inicial pesquisas brasileiras no tema. Por meio do processo de revisão sistemática de literatura, foram selecionados 96 artigos para análise, publicados entre 2003 e 2014 em periódicos brasileiros. Como modelo de análise foi utilizada a tipologia proposta por Gregor (2006), em seu artigo The Nature of Theory in Information Systems, que apresenta cinco tipologias de teorias. A análise detalhada dos artigos mostra que a maioria deles (62%) se encaixa na “teoria para análise”, o tipo mais básico estabelecido pela autora. O principal interesse das pesquisas brasileiras é na descrição do fenômeno (“o que é”), mais do que entender “porque”, “o que será” ou “como fazer algo”, que representam estágios necessários para o crescimento e qualificação de um campo de pesquisa. O estudo indica a necessidade de utilizar outros estágios de teorias nos estudos brasileiros sobre governo eletrônico

O DESENVOLVIMENTO DOS ESTUDOS SOBRE GOVERNO ELETRÔNICO NO BRASIL: UM ESTUDO BIBLIOMÉTRICO E SOCIOMÉTRICO

This study aims to identify how the field of studies of electronic government is structured in Brazil. For this purpose, a bibliometric and sociometric study was conducted, analyzing 124 articles published in the proceedings of conferences and in Brazilian journals from 2007 to 2012. The main elements of the analysis were the volume of publications per year, the location of the publications and the conceptual and substantive domains of the studies, the methodological approaches used and the network of cooperation between authors and institutions. One of the findings of the study was that the production of works was prolific, but it was not possible to determine whether studies of electronic government were increasing or in decline because of the non-uniform behavior of the volume of publications. There was also little use of a conceptual domain or a clear position regarding the theoretical domain, with discussions being limited to the substantive domain. Finally, cooperation between authors remains limited to a small number of relationship networks. However, the opposite was true when it came to cooperation between institutions, for which there is a large network and room for other institutions to join.Neste artigo busca-se identificar como o campo de estudos sobre governo eletrônico está estruturado no Brasil. Para isso realizou-se uma pesquisa bibliométrica e sociométrica em 124 artigos publicados em anais de congressos e em periódicos brasileiros no período de 2007 a 2012. Os principais elementos analisados foram o volume de publicações por ano, os veículos de divulgação/publicação, os domínios conceitual e substantivo dos trabalhos, as abordagens metodológicas utilizadas e as redes de cooperação entre autores e instituições. Entre outros resultados, constatou-se uma produção significativa no período, não sendo possível, entretanto, identificar uma tendência de crescimento ou diminuição nas publicações sobre o tema governo eletrônico, uma vez que a variação no volume de publicações anuais não foi uniforme. Notou-se, também, a pouca utilização de teorias ou modelos de referência, ficando as discussões limitadas ao domínio substantivo. Por fim, constatou-se que a cooperação entre autores ainda está limitada a poucas e pequenas redes de relacionamentos. O contrário se observa na cooperação entre instituições, existindo a presença de uma rede maior e havendo oportunidade para entrada de outras instituições que já publicam no tema